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Friday, April 29, 2011

Once described as a "very intelligent" student by his faculty advisor at the University of Hawaii, the father of President Barack Obama would later become negatively viewed by academic officials there and later at Harvard where he was pursuing a Ph.D., who saw him as a womanizer and "slippery character". According to newly-released INS records for Barack Obama, Sr., accessible here, officials at Harvard and the INS together agreed he had over-stayed his welcome in the U.S. and agreed to terminate his student visa and order his return to his native Kenya. Those same INS records also confirm the birth of one of his sons, Barack Obama, II to Stanley Ann Dunham in Honolulu, Hawaii during their very brief marriage.

The 5'11", 185-pound Kenyan native arrived at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu on August 9, 1959 at the age of 25. Obama was initially enrolled in the English Language Institute at the university, a preparatory program for foreign students before they began general course work. He relied on $1,500 in his own funds and funds he received from friends to support his living costs while attending school there. A year later, he became enrolled in the school's College of Business Administration with the benefit of scholarships from the university and the African-American Institute.

Immigration officials first became concerned about Obama when they learned he had married Stanley Ann Dunham in Maui, Hawaii during February, 1961 because they were aware he had a wife back in his native Kenya. A faculty advisor told INS officials that Obama had been "running around with several girls" and had been cautioned about his "playboy ways." The official noted in a memo that Obama's advisor said he had told her that in Kenya he did not require a legal divorce from his wife. He told her they were divorced and that was all that was necessary. The official noted Obama couldn't be deported as a non-immigrant due to polygamy; however, if convicted of bigamy, the officer noted he could be deported from the country. The officer noted Obama should be "questioned closely" before being granted any further extensions of his student visa. He suggested inquiry into whether his marriage to Dunham was bona fide in the event she petitioned to make him a permanent resident. Typically, U.S. citizens petition to make their alien spouses lawful permanent residents, particularly when they have children with them, so they don't have to worry about obtaining extensions on their visas to remain in the country legally.

During a subsequent extension of his student visa, officials noted the birth of a son to Dunham, Barack Obama, II, on August, 4, 1961. The documents suggest Dunham and Obama never lived together with their child, which helps explain why Dunham never petitioned to make her husband a permanent resident. According to the INS records, Dunham and her son lived with her parents in Honolulu. Obama told them his wife planned to leave Hawaii to attend classes at "Washington State University" in Seattle in the fall of 1961 shortly after their son was born. She actually began attending classes at the University of Washington within weeks of her son's birth and did not return to Hawaii until after her husband had left the state to pursue further studies at Harvard. Obama was granted permission to accept employment due to changed financial conditions after his marriage to Dunham. According to INS records, Obama was employed by the Dole Corporation as a part-time employee working for $1.33 an hour.

Upon earning his degree from the University of Hawaii in 1962, Obama continued his graduate studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The records, however, suggest he worked in a fellowship program for at least a year in Baltimore, Maryland before starting work on a PhD at Harvard in 1963. Interestingly, when completing his application for an extension of his student visa, Obama mentioned a son Roy Obama from his first wife in Kenya but did not list Barack Obama, II. His application acknowledged he was married but did not specify who his spouse was. A 1964 application to extend his visa omitted any mention of a wife or children, a fact noted by an INS officer on his application.

It became quite apparent that officials at Harvard soured on Obama soon after he began his graduate work there. One memo notes Obama had become involved with a female foreign exchange student from Kenya [name redacted] who abruptly left her studies at her school without completing her exams allegedly to help care for a sick sister in London. The young woman had been warned she would not be permitted to re-enroll at the school she was attending, which appears to be a high school. Officials did not believe she was leaving the country to care for a sick sister; they speculated she went to "London to get [real reason redacted]." Given the relationship the memo mentioned the woman had with Obama, one might speculate she was pregnant and went to London to get an abortion. Abortions were still illegal in most states at that time, including Massachusetts. The memo said Obama had called repeatedly on her behalf seeking a reconsideration of the school's decision not to let her return to her studies. The memo said Obama was thought to be her boyfriend and described him as "a slippery character."

Obama's academic advisors told INS officials that "Harvard was not impressed with him" and wanted to terminate his student visa. In May, 1964, Harvard notified Obama in a letter that his time at the university had come to an end and that he could complete research and work on his thesis after returning to Kenya. On his last request to extend his student visa, Obama finally named Stanley Dunham as his wife and listed Barack Obama, II as his son. He noted, however, that he had been legally separated from his wife for a couple of months. Divorce records uncovered in Hawaii suggest Dunham and Obama were divorced in January, 1964.

Before Obama's status in the U.S. had been officially terminated, a mother [name redacted] contacted INS officials to express her concern that her daughter was going to marry Obama and was concerned because she believed he already had one or two wives. An extension of Obama's student visa was denied. An INS official noted he seemed satisfied with the explanation provided when he asked for reconsideration of his application. Obama departed the U.S. for Kenya in July, 1964 at INS' request.

One of the final notes in Obama's file was a mention of the concerned mother calling again to say her daughter had left the U.S. bound for Kenya in August, 1964 to join Obama there. Officials told the mother there was nothing they could do about the fact that he already had two other wives and a son in Hawaii because her daughter knew of his marital status before she left the country. The woman in question was presumably Ruth Nidesand, a Jewish-American woman who married and lived with Obama in Kenya for several years before divorcing him. The couple had two sons, one of whom is still living. A final letter from November, 1965 noted Obama had still not chosen a title for his thesis or submitted any written information to Harvard for review.

Jack Cashill notes in another story today how Barack Obama had the same problem concluding work on his book, "Dreams From My Father", before eventually passing it off to his buddy Bill Ayers to ghost write on his behalf. Cashill concluded that the newly-released document pertaining to Obama's marriage to Stanley Dunham "thoroughly undermines the Obama nativity story, a story that has been told almost as often as Jesus's but with nowhere near the accuracy." Cashill writes, "As Obama told the story in 2004, his father had grown up in Kenya 'herding goats.'" "His mother he traced to Kansas, as he always did." "My parents shared not only an improbable love," Obama continued, "they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation." Cashill pointed out Obama's father actually grew up speaking English and working as a clerk in Nairobi. As to his parent's marriage, Cashill says "one has to wonder, however, whether it was a marriage in anything but name or whether there was a marriage at all."

UPDATE: Here's a surprise. The AP is running a story about Obama's father getting kicked out of Harvard. because of concern about his womanizing and financial concerns. Less surprising is Harvard's denial of its role in getting him tossed out of the country. “While we cannot verify accounts of conversations that occurred nearly 50 years ago, a review of our existing files did not find any support for either the language or the implied intent described by the U.S. government official in the government documents,” the statement read. Either Harvard is lying or its Obama files have been sanitized. You be the judge. Also not surprising is the attempt of some people in the media to cast these latest disclosures as evidence Obama's father was singled out due to racism because he was "dating white women." We just don't understand their cultural differences about "moving on" after a marriage to a woman.

UPDATE: Not surprisingly, only the foreign media would pick up on the point I made that the high school foreign exchange student that Obama's father was preying on who had to abruptly leave her studies to travel to London likely did so to obtain an abortion. The U.K. Telegraph reports:

Mr Obama Sr. and Miss Dunham divorced in January 1964, by which time he had left Hawaii and was studying for a PhD in Economics at Harvard.

The file said two months later, concerns were raised over Mr Obama Sr.’s relationship with a Kenyan high-school student on an exchange scheme in nearby Boston, who abruptly travelled to England.

“The suspicion exists,” the March 1964 document said, “that she may have gone to London for [redacted]”. It is unclear what the next word is. At the time, abortions were illegal in the US.

Harvard was contacted by May 1964, and while Mr Obama Sr. had passed his exams, the university agreed it would “try to cook something up to ease him out”.

Mr Obama Sr., also described as a “slippery character”, was told that funding for his studies had run out and that he must complete his thesis in Kenya.

The file said officials then received a call in July 1964 from a mother distressed that her 27-year-old daughter had agreed to marry Mr Obama Sr.

The woman is presumed to be Ruth Nidesand, who became Mr Obama Sr.'s third wife and was white, like Miss Dunham.

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